The Time Wizards
by Snorcackle
Summary: After relocating to Earth for a few decades to study humans for the Gallifreyan records, the Evans family is shocked to learn that their youngest daughter is also a witch.
1. The Very First Time Witch

**AN:** This is an idea that popped into my head after reading that Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor) is the maternal grandfather of Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley). Of course, my reaction is, "Oh snap, Dudley's a Time Lord." And then this happened. I don't own any of these characters (even the Evans's, whom JK Rowling never named / described much in the books... or, if she did, I couldn't find them). Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

The day Lily's letter came in the mail, Sylvester and Rosemary Evans could hardly contain their shock.

It had never once surprised them that she could do strange things. Even for a young Time Lady, she was a particularly exceptional child. Her understanding of botany and chemistry was incredible, far beyond that of her sister's. Though they had tried to engage both of their children in science, it had only really stuck to Lily. Petunia was, unfortunately, much less bright, always trying to blame Lily's success on "magic." Of course magic existed; the Evans's had met many a great witch or wizard in their own time. But these wizards had all been humans. Time Lords did not possess magic. They couldn't possibly believe an excuse like that.

Until now, that is.

Lily's letter explained how there was a school called Hogwarts where all witches and wizards currently residing in the United Kingdom would learn how to control and practice their magical skills. The letter also explained how, because Lily was born of non-magical parents, they would be sending a representative over at a convenient time to explain the scenario and answer any questions they might have.

On the one hand, it was all very exciting. The first official Time Lady with magic. Not that "first" meant a whole lot to a race of time-travelers, but still. They had never once encountered another of their own race who possessed these capabilities. This had to be an anomaly. On the other hand, they were supposed to be spending a few decades on Earth to study it for the Gallifreyan records. How were they supposed to explain to the Council that they had, in fact, _contributed_ to its history?

Not to mention that their children were supposed to be inconspicuous. The people of Earth didn't need to know about other worlds yet. In fact, space contact wasn't supposed to be discovered for another couple of centuries in Earth years (to be fair, they had landed a few men on their only moon, but to call that space contact would be akin to sending a hermit to the edge of his cave and calling him a people person).

Rather than be discouraged, though, the Evans's took this to be an opportunity. While the world of Gallifrey might be pleased to hear that they gave birth to the only magical Time Lady, nobody else had to know all of the details. Indeed, while any Time Lord worth his spit had met a wizard at least once, not all wizards could say the same for Time Lords. And the wizards were a secretive people, to be sure. They wouldn't want any word about their existence getting out to the other humans, so, if they knew of Lily's special situation, they would certainly take extra precautions to protect her identity.

And so the Evans's were rather contented with their daughter's achievement. Petunia, however, was not.

Hardly an hour would pass when Petunia would wail something about how her younger sister was a freak of nature. It was unsurprising, really. The two were raised amongst human children, and how else would a normal human child react? It did not help that, after an unfortunate incident with a toaster some years back, Petunia had been forced to regenerate. Such bad luck was soon followed by a less attractive face, making the girl particularly envious of her sister. Even worse, following the regeneration, the Evans's had to move to Cokesworth. It would not do for their eldest daughter to have suddenly and unpredictably changed appearances when she ought to have been dead. Petunia, of course, felt burdened with guilt for this. Had they been on Gallifrey, this would not have been a problem, but, of course, they were stuck here on Earth. Typical.

Nonetheless, it could get tiresome.

"Mummy!" Petunia would screech, "Why is that Lily gets _everything_? She gets to be a witch _and_ she hasn't used up any of her regenerations yet!"

"Calm down, Petunia," Rosemary would reply, her nose often stuck in a fascinatingly primitive Earth book on gardening. "You are a Time Lady. All good things shall come to you in, well, time. She may have good things now, but yours will soon come. I can scarcely tell you how many times I've felt the universe was acting unkindly to me, and then I would look out at my future yet to come and relax once more."

"But, Mummy, I've already used up one of my regenerations! My future won't be as long!"

"Well, Petunia dear, if you were so concerned about that, perhaps you shouldn't have dropped your TARDIS particles in to a toaster. Which reminds me, go check your TARDIS's growth. Run along, dear." Rosemary made certain that both of her children were growing their own individual TARDIS's in a controlled environment in the cellar.

Rosemary was one of the most advanced botanists back home on Gallifrey. Having heard stories of Hogwarts' excellent Herbology department, she was very excited to get to see how the wizards viewed plants differently from the average non-magical human. Besides which, because the wizards were so expert at keeping their secrets, no Time Lord had thus far managed to take note of their plants (or, for that matter, any of the rest of their magical enchantments).

As the days passed after Lily's letter arrived by owl, the Evans family (save Petunia) waited patiently for the arrival of a wizard to the house. Finally, about a week and a half later (10 days to be exact, as Lily had been counting), a tall, thin woman came to their doorstep. She told the Evans's that her name was Professor Minerva McGonagall, and that she taught Transfiguration at Hogwarts.

"Now, I know that the parents of many Muggle-born wizards are often shocked to hear that such a thing exists, and many are hesitant to let their children learn here," she explained, "but, I assure you, Hogwarts is an excellent, well-established school in the wizarding community. Now, if you require, I can prove my magic to you-"

"There's no need," said Sylvester. "I believe you. I have met quite a few wizards in my own time."

"Oh?" For once, it was Minerva who was shocked. "And what would 'your own time' be, precisely?"

"Well, there really isn't one specific one. I drift around a bit. I've been here for about two decades now; a short time, really, when you consider that Rosemary and I both graduated from the Time Lord Academy about, oh, two and a half centuries ago?"

"Well, then." Minerva was thoroughly confused. "Should I inform you with the procedure with which Lily should obtain her school supplies?"

"Certainly."

"I'm afraid you won't be able to go with her, at least not this year. We try to keep as many Muggles out of the confines of the wizarding world as we possibly can. Of course, if you're her parents, it would be rather difficult to keep you from knowing what's happening."

"That's reasonable."

Minerva was getting quite unnerved. The adults in front of her ought to have been losing their heads, and, yet, here they were, totally calm. "I will be back in a few weeks to take her to Diagon Alley, one of the most popular wizards-only shopping areas in all of Great Britain."

"That sounds splendid."

Young Lily looked up at the professor in front of her. "Ma'am, I know that both of my parents have seen wizards and witches before, but I haven't. I'm still only eleven. D'you think you could show me something?"

For once, a reasonable response. "Of course, dear."

And, with one flick of her wand, Professor McGonagall turned into a cat. She turned from a human being into a cat, right in front of Lily's eyes. Lily had seen quite a few things in her eleven years (for goodness' sake, she was growing her own time machine in her cellar), but this was new to her. There had to have been a scientific explanation for it, she knew it. Nothing lacked a scientific explanation, even if that explanation hadn't been discovered yet.

Lily decided, right then and there, that she was going to discover it.


	2. The World Behind the Wall

As she awaited Professor McGonagall's return, Lily would stay up all night thinking about possible reasons for the phenomenon she had witnessed. People didn't just turn into cats. There had to be something, a perception filter, or a chameleon circuit, perhaps?

On nights like these, when she couldn't sleep, she would go into her parents' library and look through books on Gallifreyan theory. She had never actually been to Gallifrey herself, but she had seen the pictures her parents had drawn for her and heard all of the stories they had told her. It sounded lovely, so picturesque, so glorious. She was unable to attend the Gallifreyan Time Lord Academy because her parents had taken it upon themselves to study Earth and wanted to see how she might interact with other children. It was awful. She really didn't have many friends, apart from Severus. The other children all thought she was a bit, well, odd. To be fair, she had no idea what had made her magical. No one did. She was truly unique.

Unfortunately, Gallifreyan theorists had yet to cover the idea of people turning into cats. She supposed that wizards had yet to reveal their secrets. But, no matter. As a Time Lady, she felt obligated to provide as much information as she possibly could. Perhaps, even, she would eventually send her children (who would, hopefully, also be both wizard and Time Lord) to Hogwarts as well, in case she had yet to understand everything about the wizarding world.

In the daytime, when snooping through her parents' library was less acceptable, she would seek out the company of her one true friend, Severus. The small playground down the street would be their meeting place. Most of the other neighborhood children wouldn't play there. The equipment was rusty and rickety, making it an accident waiting to happen. But her parents didn't seem to mind much, as she could heal relatively easily, and Severus' parents were always too busy arguing to care much about where he was. Fortunately for Lily, Severus, too, had received a letter from Hogwarts, as his mother was a full-fledged witch in her own right.

"Severus," she asked him one day when she was feeling particularly contemplative, "how do you think magic works? I mean, why does it happen? Why do we have it?"

"You're not supposed to know how it works," he replied. "That's why it's called magic."

Lily didn't want to argue for fear of upsetting her best friend. But, somewhere deep down within her, she knew he was wrong. There had to be a why. _That_ was why there was science. Even if he wouldn't acknowledge that, though, she could still ask him other questions.

"Severus, what's it like, growing up with magic?"

"I don't know. It seems pretty normal at first. Mum has always been casting little spells here and there, and I've always been able to just levitate things. Not to mention I've had a bit of a knack for mixing things together. You know, I found my mum's old potions textbook from Hogwarts. I've got a funny feeling I'm going to like that class when I get there.

"But then I go out of the house. It's not the same anymore. People make fun of me. I'm different, you see? _We're_ different. And some people can't take that, so I- _we_- have got to pretend magic is just a big joke. The other Muggles on the street can't know what we're doing. They don't get it. And I don't think the wizards _want_ them to get it."

"Do you want them to get it, Severus?"

"Me? Well, I guess I do. I wish being different wasn't so bad. I'd like to make different normal. I think."

Lily laughed. She knew the feeling all too well. "You know, Severus, once we get to Hogwarts, we'll be normal" _You'll_ be normal, she thought. "People aren't going to laugh at us anymore."

"They shouldn't laugh at you anyways, Lily." Severus' eyes were wide. "You're extraordinary."

"No, I'm weird. _You're_ the extraordinary one, Severus."

The two would continue to play on the dilapidated playground until dusk fell, forcing them to run back to their homes for supper.

Lily would continue searching for answers by talking to her parents, but they weren't much help. They would only chatter on about how proud they were to have produced the first Time Lady the wizarding world had seen. She understood that it was an honor and all, but she was surprised that they didn't care to find out how it happened. In their defense, their primary job in this century was to observe, not to experiment, but still. She had never known them to just let something slide like that.

It wasn't even as if she could talk to her sister about it. Petunia didn't want to listen, and, even if Lily could get her backed into a corner, all she would say is, "You're a freak!"

Slowly, though, the two weeks passed, and Professor McGonagall showed up once more to take her on her first fantastic journey. Lily had not been the only one reading up. McGonagall, too, had taken it upon herself to find out about Time Lords. She had consulted Dumbledore, seeing if he knew anything about them. Of course he had. He had even been allowed to visit the Time Lord Council on Gallifrey itself. He was the strongest source of information she could find, though, as Muggle literature held very little on their existence.

Still, both professor and student were well prepared to ask and answer questions. By the time the two reached Diagon Alley, Lily had asked enough questions for the both of them, about how the wizards kept places hidden, about how people could learn to change into animals, about how wands could actually hold magic.

Fortunately, McGonagall rather enjoyed answering these sorts of questions. Of course, there were charms on buildings so that Muggles would not notice them, wizards and witches could learn to transfigure themselves into animals and become animagi over the course of several months, and wands were specifically paired to wizards so that they could stream their magic, so to speak, in the manner of their choosing.

As the two approached a pub, Lily could easily see that none of the passing humans noticed it. The pub had a large, decaying wooden sign over it, labeled "The Leaky Cauldron." How stereotypically wizard.

They entered the pub, stepping around tables and past smelly patrons until they finally passed through a door on the other side. On the other side of the door, there was a small patio and a large brick wall. Professor McGonagall produced her wand, tapped on a series of bricks, and the wall opened up. The other side of the wall was unlike anything Lily had ever seen, even in her parents' books on the history of Gallifrey. The streets were beautifully uneven, the buildings were imposing yet fairytale, and the noise was, for lack of a better word, magical. She wondered how she could not have seen or heard any of it from the street. All thoughts of scientific reasoning flew straight out of her head.

McGonagall turned to Lily. "Now, in order to purchase your school supplies, I'm going to have to loan you some money."

"Like a scholarship?"

"Yes. Precisely like a scholarship of sorts. We will be able to buy you a cauldron, a wand, your books, the basics, and, perhaps an owl, cat, or toad."

"Excellent!"

The two continued on their journey through Diagon Alley. Lily marveled at all of the fantastic objects floating in the shop windows. Her hearts pounded inside her chest as she approached Mr. Ollivander to test wands, and her head could hardly wrap itself around all of the fantastic wizarding books inside of Flourish and Blotts. She even was able to choose an owl for herself, a beautiful tawny whom she named Omega. If this was the one pet she could get that could travel anywhere, it seemed only fitting to name him after the father of the greatest sort of travel.

Only as they were leaving did Lily think to ask, "Professor, how will I _get_ to Hogwarts?"

"Oh!" We really should update those letters, Minerva thought. "You'll have to go to King's Cross Station by 11 o'clock on September 1st. The train will depart from Platform 9 ¾-"

"Platform 9 ¾?" Lily interrupted. "How does that exist?"

"You have to run right into the column between platforms 9 and 10."

"Oh."

"Perhaps I should arrange for a wizarding family to meet you there."

"No, I think I'll manage." Lily figured that she could travel there with Severus, since he would be attending also.

"I'm glad to hear it. I have faith in you. You seem to be a very intelligent young girl."


	3. En Route to Adventure

**AN:** I do plan on adding more to this story (not all of Lily's years at Hogwarts, of course; that might be a bit too much) but it might be a while until I actually add anything. I plan on getting to Harry, and what might change if he's a Time Lord, and all that jazz. I don't any of these characters (which should probably be a given, since it's fanfiction with no OCs, but whatever).

* * *

The clock chimed 10 as Lily, along with her parents Rosemary and Sylvester, approached the station. There seemed to be more people than average for a Wednesday morning. It seemed to Lily that it was a strange time for most humans to travel; although, she supposed, she was travelling today, so why would no one else do the same?

Her parents unloaded her luggage. She was able to travel fairly lightly, as her trunk was considerably larger on the inside. She had her school robes, her books, her owl… She even packed in a few keepsakes from home. She allowed her parents to take care of her TARDIS plant growing in their cellar for this year at least, so that it would not have to leave the controlled environment. Besides which, she had no intention of revealing to her classmates that she was a Time Lady. They would never believe her, even if she did.

Lily could hardly wait as she walked up to the platform. She had yet to see Severus. She imagined he was probably running somewhat late. His parents were probably arguing, pushing their arrival time back a bit. Still, she felt that she simply had to see what was on the platform that awaited her.

She waved back to her parents one final time before sprinting straight towards the giant brick column between platforms 9 and 10. Once on the other side, she was surrounded by smoke and noise. Again she found herself wondering how they hid it so well. She ran through the crowd a little bit, not caring if she bumped into people, just wanting to take in all of the sensational magic surrounding her. Not long after she ran off into the mists and the crowd did she find herself back near the platform entrance, where she found Severus.

The two quickly found a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, and, after an unpleasant encounter with a few other first years, were eager to reach Hogwarts itself. Lily felt that she had heard so much about it, and yet it was so distant.

"Severus," she asked, "what house do you think you'll be in?"

"I don't really know." He looked upset. "I suspect Slytherin. My entire family has been in that house for as many generations as anyone can remember."

"Don't be ridiculous. Just because they are doesn't mean you will be. Look at my family: Muggles, the whole lot of them. And here I am, sitting with you. Severus, you are one of the smartest and bravest people I know. I'd guess you'll either be Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. I'll be honest, I hope you're in Ravenclaw so that we can be together."

"No, you see, I don't really mind being a Slytherin. If I am one, that's a good sign for me. People respect Slytherins. They _get_ places. I've never been able to do that, but I'm tired of being stepped on. I _want _that. And, as for you, I think you'll be a Gryffindor."

"You think so?"

"I do. You're smart, alright, but there are lots of intelligent Gryffindors. The way you've always stood up for me, and for yourself, I don't think you'd belong anywhere else."

Lily thought about that for a minute. For once, the sound of being a Gryffindor seemed appealing. She had never thought of herself as particularly brave, but, perhaps being the first Time Lady to go off to Hogwarts counted for something. She was a pioneer of sorts. She didn't know what lied ahead for her, but she knew that, whatever path it took, it would help someone understand the world just a bit more clearly.

Using all of this sound logic made her even more convinced that she had to be a Ravenclaw.

The train ride seemed to just breeze by, and, before she even knew it, Lily found herself at Hogwarts. She could scarcely understand what was happening before she found herself, along with all of the other first years, being led up a large staircase. Professor McGonagall was leading them to the top, where she explained how they would be called in alphabetical order to be sorted by the Sorting Hat. How strange that was, a hat that spoke. Even TARDIS's needed a voice interface in order to communicate verbally. Objects didn't simply speak. She guessed it had to be a semi-sentient android, an answer that left her somewhat content.

When her name was called, she soldiered up to the stool at the front of the hall. She was nervous, to be sure, for one of the other first years with which she and Severus had encountered on the train had already been placed as Gryffindor. She almost wished she would not be placed in that house, but she knew that she would be able to handle them if they continued bothering her in the future. It wasn't as if being in a different house than them would change much of anything, anyways. Against her better judgment, she allowed the Sorting Hat to make its decision without her interference. She knew that, were it a semi-sentient android, she would be able to overpower it fairly quickly, but she decided to take her chances.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted the moment it was set atop her head.

The students after her were all sorted in a similar manner and, much to Lily's dismay, both boys with which she had had an altercation with earlier were Gryffindors as well, and Severus was a Slytherin. She knew that she oughtn't to have taken her chances with the hat.

Nevertheless, she settled in to Gryffindor tower quite nicely. In the girls' dormitory, each room housed a different year of students. She shared her room with four other first year Gryffindor girls, all of whom seemed like lovely people. The Gryffindor common room was cozy, and the portrait guarding the entrance was entertaining. Lily wished she understood how these portraits worked, as all of the inhabitants, so to speak, were able to move freely from one portrait to another. Was it perhaps a window to a parallel universe? For at least the first week, Lily chose not to care too much. She had seven years to formulate a basic understanding, surely science could take a week off.

And, thus, Lily found herself entirely ready to undertake the greatest adventure she could possibly imagine.


	4. A Spot of Trouble

Several weeks had passed since Lily had first arrived at Hogwarts. For once in her life, she was fitting in almost perfectly. She had friends in the Gryffindor house, as well as in all the other houses. To be honest, the only friend she had in the Slytherin house was Severus, but, nonetheless, few others had that claim in her year. Indeed, the only people with whom she frequently butted heads were the two boys she had encountered on the train, James Potter and Sirius Black, and one of their friends, Peter Pettigrew. They had one other friend whom they trotted around with a lot, Remus Lupin, but she didn't mind him so much. He was quieter and much less bothersome. Sometimes he would just disappear; a feat which Lily very much wished his friends would do.

Her classes were going very well, as her parents were very glad to hear. It wasn't particularly surprising. Generally, research had found that, comparing Time Lords and humans, Time Lords tended to outscore humans on most intergalactic intelligence standards, although humans certainly had their abilities. Indeed, if she had to choose a different species to be, it would be human.

In fact, the only problem Lily had faced thus far was that she could confide in no one about being a Time Lady. It was eating her up inside. She knew that Professor McGonagall knew of her situation, but her knowledge had a limit, and, besides, McGonagall could be a little bit touchy on the subject. She could send mail to her parents, but that took so long. She didn't have all of her more high-tech equipment, because it could be difficult to hide and operate in such close quarters. It wasn't until one day in mid-November of 1971, when Lily received a letter from her parents explaining their acquaintance with her headmaster, that she finally found an alternative. Now, her only problem was getting to the headmaster himself.

She had seen him speak on her first day of school, and, on occasion, he would wander the halls, but Albus Dumbledore was an unpredictable sort of man. Finding him randomly would not be an option. That meant she would half to go to his office herself.

The next Saturday, when Lily knew she had plenty of free time, she wandered around the halls for a bit, trying to remember where the staircases had left her and where she vaguely remembered seeing teachers guiding unruly students in the past. At last, she came to the entrance of a tower, in front of which sat a large gargoyle. This triggered her memory to her first day at Hogwarts, at which point one of the Gryffindor prefects pointed out, "That's the headmaster's office. Mind you never have to go there."

How could a statue of a gargoyle be the headmaster's office? There wasn't even anything behind it for the gargoyle to protect. Lily often prided herself on her use of logic, but she was at a loss to explain this. If she could not even manage to find the headmaster's office herself, then so be it. She would have to be lead there.

Still, she feared that just asking a professor would seem as if she were filing a complaint, and she didn't want to give off that impression. Very well. She would just have to get into a spot of trouble.

That evening, she decided to make her move. The trouble, of course, had to be very well planned. Curfew wasn't a problem at Hogwarts, so sneaking around the halls would not necessarily be grounds for punishment. Taunting another student would just be mean. Throwing a tantrum would be totally out of character. She had to choose something perfect. Multiple attempts to get into the restricted section of the library, perhaps, would do just the trick.

She ventured into the quiet halls of the library at around eight o' clock. She peered around, as if to make sure no one was watching. She pretended not to notice Madam Pince standing just ten meters away as she snuck into the section. As she wandered into the restricted section, she could feel the air tense around her. Within seconds, it seemed, Madam Pince was standing over Lily's shoulder, breathing down her neck. "What," she whispered, "are _you_ doing here?"

Lily turned her head, feigning shock, trying to conceal her joy that Phase One of her plan was working. "Oh, I'm so terribly sorry. There was just a book on bota- I mean, herbology that I wanted to look at-"

"I guarantee you," Pince interrupted, "we have plenty of herbology books you have yet to see that are _not_ restricted." She humphed out a heavy breath. "I hope that you will not forget your place as a first year."

"Of course not, Madam Pince."

She went again the next Wednesday, achieving similar results. The following Sunday held the same prospects. The next Tuesday, however, she found what she believed to be her plan materializing.

As she snuck into the section, Lily knew it would not take long. Indeed, Madam Pince immediately grabbed the girl's shoulder, turning her around.

"How many times must I tell you that you are _not_ permitted in the restricted section?"

"I dunno."

"This is bordering on delinquency."

"Drat." Lily tried to conceal her joy. "I guess you'll just have to take me to the headmaster then, and let him deal with me."

Lily's joy only lasted so long, though, as Madam Pince had other plans. "The headmaster? Oh, no, my dear girl. You couldn't possibly expect him to be bothered with one girl sneaking through my library. He has an entire school to run. I'll refer you to your head of house. She'll deal with you."

As Lily was guided to McGonagall's office, her face was flushed from embarrassment. Not only had her plan failed horribly, she was faced with explaining it to McGonagall, with whom she was still struggling to connect. She could hardly bear this thought. To be fair, though, she would have had to explain everything to Dumbledore anyways. Why she was so afraid of explaining it to McGonagall was beyond her.

Finally, after what seemed like the longest walk in history, Pince shoved Lily through the door. Pointing at the young redhead, the librarian said in a snarl, "_She_ was caught in the restricted section for the fourth time in less than a fortnight, each time looking for the same book, I presume." Her dark eyes narrowed from behind her spectacles. "I expect you will come up with a reasonable punishment."

"Yes, thank you. I'll deal with her in private."

Madam Pince swept back out the door, her disdain for the young witch evident. Professor McGonagall was less than surprised. Pince did not take a liking to many people, the professors included. Although the woman was still young, her pointed nose and angry snarl made her seem older than Dumbledore himself. It confused Minerva why Pince even wanted to work at Hogwarts in the first place.

Professor McGonagall turned to Lily now. The young girl was practically quaking before her. "Well, Miss Evans, it's nearly Christmas and you have not gotten into trouble yet, which is impressive for a first year, especially for a Gryffindor. Not one of your housemates this year thus far have had that accomplishment. I was beginning to think you might make it the entire year. Evidently, I was mistaken. But, still, you have made it ten weeks, and on the eleventh you repeat the same offense _four times_? Miss Evans, I am a patient woman, but I must know the explanation for this. What makes it more curious is the sheer fact that it is not a particularly common offense. I've heard tell of a few Ravenclaws trying it here and there, after they have read everything. You, however, have not gotten into a nasty duel, or explored a forbidden corridor, or snuck into another common room, like your fellow Gryffindors, but instead you have persisted in locating the same book four different times. Miss Evans, I implore you, why now? What has changed?"

Lily could hardly follow a speech like that. McGonagall normally seemed so terse, a woman of few words. For her to go on a rampage like that, something on Lily's part must have genuinely riled her up. Lily didn't even know where to begin.

"Professor," she said, "I know you are aware of my particularly, er, special situation."

"Yes, indeed I am."

"Then you understand that I have no one to talk to about it. If I reveal my identity to more than you or Headmaster Dumbledore, I am putting the purity of my parents' research in great danger. With all due respect, Professor, I believe Dumbledore knows more of the situation than you do. My parents even tell me they've met him before. I was trying to do something to perhaps gain an audience with him."

"And you planned on doing that by sneaking into the library? Really, Miss Evans, did you think this plan through?"

"Yes, or, I thought I did. I might have missed some of the larger flaws."

"Miss, Evans, _now_ you are starting to sound like a Gryffindor."

Professor McGonagall promised Lily that she would talk to Dumbledore at the next Heads of Houses meeting that Saturday to see if he could perhaps find a time to speak with her. Somehow, after that first meeting, Lily did not find McGonagall quite so intimidating. She was still a severe looking woman, and perhaps frightening to the other students, but Lily no longer felt any fear or trepidation in speaking with her.

Perhaps more fortunately, after McGonagall's meeting with the headmaster, Lily, too, was granted an audience. She didn't even know what she was going to say to him, but she was relieved to have the opportunity to speak about the world she had lived in her entire life thus far.

The day finally arrived, and McGonagall escorted Lily to the stone gargoyle Lily had seen just a couple of weeks earlier. The professor approached the gargoyle and said, "Peanut butter cups." The gargoyle leapt to the side and a stone spiral staircase began to rise out of the ground behind it. The two stepped onto the steps as they rose right into the middle of a magnificent office. An enormous vermillion bird flew above their heads. Small clocks were ticking, milliseconds apart from one another. Large portraits of former headmasters were all speaking in wonderful conversations with each other. Tiny bowls of treats sat out on tables, some of them moving.

Finally, a tall, thin wizard in purple robes strode into the room. His long auburn beard was graying, and his smiling eyes peered down at Lily from behind his half-moon spectacles. "So _this_ is our little Time Lady. Thank you very much, Minerva. Go along so I can have a word with Miss Evans in private."

Professor McGonagall exited the office. Headmaster Dumbledore gestured to a high-backed chair. "Have a seat, child. Do you care for tea?"

"Yes, Headmaster."

Dumbledore walked over to a large brass kettle that was hovering over a fire. Instead of whistling, it had been enchanted to play a lovely melody as the steam spewed out of the spout. Dumbledore carefully poured a particularly aromatic tea into two small teacups. "Now, Miss Evans, I wondered when you would finally stop by. I understand this is about being the only Time Lady here, is it not?"

"Yes, it is. My parents told me they'd met you once before."

"Well, indeed they did."

"How?"

"Well, Miss Evans, that might be a bit difficult to explain. You see, about ten years ago in my time stream, the Time Lords ran into a spot of trouble with a rogue known as The Master. I myself have had a decent bit of experience dealing with less than ideal wizards. Some of my kind might even call me a rogue, and who am I to disagree? But the Time Lords were really having trouble pinning him down, so to speak. At any rate, the High Council sought out my advice. I had in fact just managed to place the wizard Gelert Grindelwald behind bars without a wand or any means of escape, and the Time Lords wished to do the same to this fellow the Master. They brought me on one of their TARDISes and whisked me off to Gallifrey."

"You've been to Gallifrey? I'm a Time Lady, and I haven't even gotten the chance to go there."

"You will one day, child, I'm quite sure of it."

"I'm sorry, I interrupted you. Go on."

Dumbledore thought for a moment to remember where he left off. "Ah, yes, Gallifrey. Well, once the Time Lords got me there and we had conversed for some time, we realized that muggles and wizards and Time Lords all were really not completely different. We share similar problems. We have those few who rise up, who corrupt with power. And we have those few who fight against that corruption with somewhat questionable methods-"

"I hope, Headmaster, that you aren't referring to yourself," Lily interrupted once more.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you are the Headmaster of one of the finest institutions of magic on Earth. The other wizards can't think you're _too_ questionable. And the Time Lord High Council summoned you to help! They are fairly picky, you know."

"Indeed they are. And, indeed, I have been given many an honor. That does not mean that everybody likes me. Nobody could say that there was not at least a point in my career wherein my methods were all considered perfect, but they worked well enough when everyone else's plans did not that the Time Lord High Council took notice and called me as ambassador. Unfortunately, I was of little help to them, and their rogue got away, but it did, at the very least, get them thinking about other civilizations. That is where your parent came in. The Time Lords decided to send some of their own off to other planets to study the ways of the natives, and your parents were a perfect fit for the job. Despite their obvious talents in science, they managed to stay out of any real trouble. I gave them some idea of what to expect here, and how few people will be much like me. Obviously, they've gotten to know more wizards than they bargained for." Dumbledore smiled, his stark blue eyes shining from behind his half-moon glasses.

The two continued conversing for another hour. By the time Lily left the office, she could tell that she was easily welcomed by Dumbledore. Her uniqueness was no longer a burden to her; indeed, her knowledge of just how special she truly was, even without factoring in her magical abilities, made her more confident than ever.


	5. A Very Sluggish Christmas

Knowing that she was not alone at Hogwarts gave Lily hope. She had been fitting in before, doing well in classes, and the like, but it seemed that much of her outlook had changed. Her secret was no longer an overbearing force keeping her from expanding as a person; instead, it was a driving factor, sending her on a direct mission to succeed.

Indeed, her drive was unmistakable. The marks she was getting in all of her classes were far above those of her classmates, particularly in Potions. Indeed, Professor Slughorn was most fond of her. One class, he went so far as to say she would soon be among the best in the entire school, let alone the first years.

To be fair, she had extensive experience in the sciences. Her parents had educated her in chemistry, exposing her to different elements, explaining different solar systems, comparing plants from different planets. It was hardly difficult.

The only part Lily found difficult at all, in fact, was the terminology. So many of these materials wizards used were so very much like what she had been accustomed to. The mandrakes she had learned of in Herbology were quite the same as the Screaming Blood Roots of Szabo, with the main difference between the two lying not with the plants themselves, but with those who tended them. Humans evidently lacked the capacity to survive an sonic attack, but the Szaboans had evolved several layers over their eardrums that prevented much, if any, damage from the high-pitched screams. Of course, this also meant that the sounds of the Screaming Blood Roots had little effect on comatose patients, which apparently was the main function of the Earth's mandrake. Similarly, the Garotting Gas that she had learned of in Potions was quite simply the same air that engulfed the planet Polymos, home to the Nestene Consciousness. To a creature like a Time Lord or a human, it would be impossible to breath, but those same molecules that would suffocate them acted as vital nutrients for an Auton.

It was really quite difficult to remember the distinctions.

Fortunately, some classes covered material she had never experienced before. Charms, for instance, was particularly challenging. The concept of words having such power was so foreign to Lily that she nearly didn't believe it was possible. Yes, she understood that language was an important commodity, but it couldn't _possibly_ influence non-sentient objects. The universe just didn't allow for that sort of thing. On a more positive note, though, at least she was fully able to look at the concept without confusing it for something else.

Lily's prowess in her subjects was, evidently, not something that everyone took lightly. One chilly December afternoon, after a particularly tedious Potions lecture, she found herself searching for her best friend, Severus. It took her nearly an hour before she was able to track him down. As she approached him, he looked away with guilt.

"Sevie!" she said in excitement. As she walked up, she realized that she had seen him less and less frequently as the year had gone on.

"Hi." He looked in every direction in the hallway except for straight at her.

Lily was concerned. "Is something wrong?" she asked, snaking her head around to try to meet his eyes.

He shook his head. "No, of course not." His eyes finally settled on the ground in front of his feet before he ran off. "Gotta go."

As he ran, he thought of how _everything_ was wrong. He couldn't tell Lily. That simply wasn't an option. He knew his fellow Slytherins didn't like her: not only was she a Muggle-born, but she was better than them in every subject. To be fair, though, he didn't particularly like all of them. Still, he showed promise in his subjects, especially Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and the others took notice of him. One in particular, Lucius Malfoy, had taken him under his wing, in a sense, although Severus got the feeling that Malfoy and his friends had dubious intentions.

It was alright, though, Severus told himself. Lily was far too special to want to hang out with _him_, right? Maybe he'd be worth something someday, but not yet. He was lucky to still have her at all. He could take some comfort in knowing that she hadn't started hanging out with that Potter boy.

Meanwhile, Lily sulked off to the Gryffindor common room. All she had wanted to know was if Severus was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas like she was. As a Time Lady, she and her family didn't celebrate any Earth holidays, so it seemed silly for her to go home to celebrate it. She had found that most of her friends in the Gryffindor house were going home, so she was going to be rather lonesome.

Sure enough, Severus did go home, so Lily found herself wandering around the castle alone while so many students had left. She had learned that she could easily find her way to a familiar location, even if she decided to go down an unexplored route, so long as she spoke to the portraits enough. On Christmas Eve, she followed one moving stairwell to what soon turned out to be the dungeons. As she wandered, she slowly began to hear more and more noise. The noise grew louder and louder until she stopped in front of the Potions classroom. Inside, she could hear the familiar buzz of conversation and a faint melodious song being played on a lute.

Suddenly, much to Lily's surprise, Sir Nicholas, the Gryffindor house ghost, floated through the door, spinning gaily. "Aha!" he nearly shouted. "Lovely party in there!" He looked down at the young girl in front of him. "Oh! Miss Evans! I'll tell Horace you've arrived. And, might I say, quite underdressed for the occasion. Best not to have come at all, in that sort of case. But, here you are!"

"Arrived at what?" Lily was thoroughly confused.

"Oh, goodness child, don't you remember your invitations?"

"As far as I know, I haven't been invited to anything. What's happening in there."

"Why, Professor Slughorn's annual Christmas party, of course!" He looked perplexed. "I'll go check to make certain I'm not mistaken on the subject of your invitation." He disappeared back through the door momentarily. Lily listened closely, finally hearing the muffled sounds of his voice going back and forth with that of Professor Slughorn. Soon, Sir Nicholas popped back through the door.

"It would seem I was mistaken; you weren't invited. How rude of me. Horace said you would be invited in a few years' time because, as a rule, he usually avoids inviting first years; otherwise you would have been first on the list. However, he mentioned that, if you were already here, you'd be welcome inside for a treat." He headed back in until he noticed Lily hadn't followed him. "Well, come along, then!"

Lily walked inside, pushing the door open in front of her. The party was magnificent. The sheer magnitude of people there was fantastic on many levels and had a beauty that even a Time Lady would have to concede to. There were wizards and witches of many ages; there were vampires and werewolves; there were ghosts and goblins galore. The guests extended beyond students at Hogwarts, including many great people the professor had met in his studies and travels.

Professor Slughorn soon spotted Lily, quickly waddling over to her. "Ah! Miss Evans! How lovely of you to be here," he said, hiccupping intermittently. "I suppose you've found out about the worst kept secret here at Hogwarts." His cheeks were rosy and his glasses were crooked. Lily guessed he had drunk a bit too much firewhiskey.

"I suppose so."

"Well, I was going to wait a couple of years to make sure you wouldn't sort of level out, but I might as well invite you in now."

"I'm already here."

"Yes, yes, my dear child, you are." Slughorn laughed. "What I mean is that I ought to invite you into the Slug Club."

"The what?" Lily was even more confused now.

"The Slug Club. It's my pickings of the finest students in the school. Members often come back later, as you can see just looking around you." He gestured to show the multitudes of people surrounding him. "You are an exceptional young witch, Miss Evans, and it would be my honor to have you amongst my ranks."

Lily felt stunned. "Er, thank you. I'd be honored to join you."

"Wonderful, wonderful! Help yourself to a treacle tart!" He began to wander off to talk to some more colleagues. He turned around suddenly as remembered to say, "Oh, but try not to take too much firewhiskey!"

Lily giggled as Slughorn strode off to find others who were similarly inebriated. This, she thought to herself, seemed like an _excellent_ place to fit in.


	6. Not Exactly Human

**AN:** So, I had a lot of fun writing this one. I've never really shipped these characters, and, since I plan on keeping the story similar to the books in the long run, I don't think it'll go beyond this chapter, but, hey. In an alternate universe, they'd make a great pair.

* * *

So the months passed on for Lily Evans. The school year flew by, and summer came and went in what seemed like an instant. Her second year went by much the same as her first, and, before she even was aware of it, she was thirteen, a third year student at Hogwarts.

By this point, things began to change. She had been forced to choose amongst all of the new potential classes she could take. Out of the five she was offered, she was able to eliminate two. Fortunately, she found that Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy, and Study of Ancient Runes fit together quite nicely, giving her a full but workable schedule for her next three years at least.

However, the largest changes came not in her schedule, but in her friends. She had seen less and less of Severus, even over the summers. He seemed to prefer spending time with Lucius Malfoy and the like, who were simply incompatible with Lily. No matter how far she went to reach out to her best friend, he would find a way to take a step further back.

Still, she was finding that some of the Gryffindors who had _not_ seemed so friendly were really not as bad as she thought. She had some mixed feelings yet about James Potter, but she found she got along well enough with all of his friends. Indeed, she found that she got along splendidly with Remus Lupin, who seemed similarly inclined to spend time studying rather than causing a commotion. He even took Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, which were both considered to be fairly difficult courses.

It was funny, really. Remus was sort of mysterious, sort of… elusive. Lily had no idea how else to describe him, but she knew that, the less she saw him, the more she _wanted_ to see him.

She caught herself thinking that one evening as she studied a particularly tricky potion formula in the Gryffindor common room. Oh, dear, she thought to herself. Oh, dear; oh, dear; oh, dear. This would _never_ do. He wasn't even the same _species_ as her. How could she possibly have a crush on a human? Not that humans were bad by any means. But a Time Lady loving a human was simply preposterous.

Still, it had been known to happen. Evidently, Time Lord and human DNA were similar enough that hybrids could also reproduce, which was rare amongst Earth species. It wouldn't be the first time…

Stop it, Lily, she told herself. If she was going to like a human in _that_ way, she shouldn't think of it so scientifically. It was insane enough as it was. She needn't make it more ridiculous. She continued staring at the potion formula, taking in absolutely no information, a blank expression gracing her face. Finally, she brought herself back to reality, deciding to concentrate on creating the perfect manegro potion.

She had trouble focusing. She tried to blame the fact that it was late and the potion was difficult, but she had brewed it before; why should it be more difficult now? Before she knew it, the clock had hit midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock, and she still hadn't managed to finish the potion. It was alright, she told herself. Time Lords could manage on less sleep than humans could.

Suddenly, Lily heard a creak in the floorboards. This startled her, and, as she looked up, she noticed Remus standing on the other side of the room. "Oh. Hi, Lily."

Play it cool, she told herself. Play it cool. "Hi." Good enough.

He squinted at her, confused. "What are you still doing up? It's nearly three."

She shrugged. "Just studying. I'm having a difficult time with this potion. You?"

"Can't sleep." He shut his eyes tight, as if to gain just a moment of the sleep he had so unfairly been deprived of. "Which potion?"

"Manegro." She sighed. "I keep getting it wrong. If my hair grew just an inch for each time I had tested this potion and gotten it wrong, you wouldn't be able to see the floor anymore."

Remus walked over and sat across the table from her. "Did you count the number of stirs clockwise and counter-clockwise exactly?" He peered into the cauldron. "It doesn't look like the right color yet."

"Well, I thought I got it right." Lily wrinkled her nose. "Maybe I'm forgetting an ingredient."

"Have you put in toad's eye?"

"Yes."

"Eagle feather?"

"Yes."

"Horse hair?"

"Yes, I've got all of those."

"Hmm." Remus thought for a moment. "Did you remember your eyelash?"

Lily gasped. "Of course! How could I be so _stupid_?" She quickly rubbed her eyes, maneuvering her fingers to pluck out a lash. She then dropped it into the cauldron, making a few waves and slowly giving the potion an ideal chartreuse hue. "Perfect."

She looked back up at Remus. Oh, goodness. Three o'clock was hardly the time to flirt, Lily knew, but there was no one else around, so she decided to take her chances. Oh, boy. Here went nothing.

"Thank you so much for your help," Lily said, batting her (now slightly less full) eyelashes at him.

"Erm, you're welcome."

"You're very smart, you know." She tilted her head to one side, smiling.

"Thanks. So are you."

"Thank you." She giggled. Now to make her move. "By any chance, were you planning on going to the next trip to Hogsmeade?"

"Yes, I suppose I was." He furrowed his brow, confused. "Why?"

"Well," said Lily, a light flutter in her voice, "I was wondering if you might like to go by the Three Broomsticks and have a butterbeer."

Remus suddenly caught on to what she was suggesting. "Oh…" He took a moment before actually responding. Inside his head was an absolute thunderstorm of emotions. "Erm…" He couldn't quite figure out how to tell her the absolute truth.

Lily was obviously disappointed. "It's alright to just say no."

"No, it's not that." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "It's not that you're not pretty enough, or that I don't like you, because I like you a lot, and, if there's one everyone says when they first see you, it's, 'She's pretty.' But…" He finally decided on the truth. "I can't." No, the truth was refusing to come out.

"Why not?"

"Well, because…" He searched for another truth. There had to be _loads_ of ways to convince her not to want this without either breaking his promise to James or lying to Lily. "Because I'm not entirely human."

To his surprise, Lily laughed. "Well, that's alright. Neither am I."

"What?"

Lily leaned in, pushing her cauldron aside. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone this, but I'm actually an alien," she whispered in a voice so quiet Remus nearly couldn't hear her. "My parents are from Gallifrey, I have two hearts, and, instead of dying, I change my body and face and such. You must promise never to tell anyone." Her brilliant green eyes were wide. "Your turn."

He certainly hadn't been expecting that. He couldn't quite tell if she was serious or making fun of him. "Well… I'm actually a werewolf." He expected that, if she _was_ joking, she would drop the charade now.

Her eyes grew wider still. "So _that's_ why you disappear each month." She was incredulous. "And I thought I was the only one at school who didn't quite fit in."

She obviously wasn't about to drop the ruse. "Are you serious? You know, about being an alien with two hearts?"

"Of course I am." Lily looked mildly insulted. She reached out for his hand. "I'll show you."

Remus reluctantly put his arm across the table. Lily took it, putting all ten of her fingers around his knuckles. She brought his hand slowly over to her, placing it above her chest, first the right side, then the left. Both places he touched, Remus could feel a distinctive _thumpthump_. "I guess you're serious."

Lily smirked. "Is that good enough for you?"

If he could have said yes, Remus would have right then and there. "Lily, I can't." He could hardly look at her as her face fell. The truth had to come out. "James would probably kill me." He struggled still as the look on her face turned to confusion. "You see, he sort of… Well, he likes you, but I promised not to tell, because that's _his_ secret."

Lily was absolutely dumbfounded. "Really?"

"Really."

She sighed, discontented. "You know, you're a good friend. To me, and to him."

"Erm, thanks."

"It's a shame he's such a complete arse."

Remus laughed. Although he was friends with James, he had to agree that Lily was right about him to an extent.

He soon stopped laughing, however, as Lily leaned over the table and kissed him. It was swift, but it left Remus completely lost in what just happened.

"Now, we're never going to speak about this night to anyone else, are we?"

"Never." Remus swallowed another lump in his throat as Lily laughed.

"Good."


	7. Butterbeer and Snowballs

While Lily's encounter with Remus brought them closer together as friends, she found that whatever mixed feelings she may have had about James before were now most certainly bad ones. It bothered her that he would tell his friends before her so that he might be a priority. What sort of person did he think he was, laying claim to her like she was a toy in a store? No matter, she thought. He was only human; she was almost certain of it. Surely, he couldn't be prancing around as an animal in his spare time, although that would be a sight to see. Yes, two almost-humans were quite enough for this school.

At any rate, she hardly had time to think about it. She was studying ten different subjects, all of which were difficult in their own right. Lily had temporarily given up discovering the science behind everything she saw around her, focusing instead on understanding the magic by itself. She had centuries ahead of her to discover the rest.

However, Lily was always able to make room for trips to Hogsmeade or meetings for the Slug Club. Yes, she told herself, they were silly pastimes, but they would clear her mind. The Slug Club was a nice reminder of her abilities, which was greatly appreciated as her coursework grew more difficult. As for the trips to Hogsmeade, they were, to put it simply, fun.

Once every few weekends, she would take the trip with the rest of the eligible students, going off with friends to explore shops and eat something that wasn't cooked by house elves. Lily found herself particularly fond of the bookstore, Tomes and Scrolls. She often lost track of time, darting her eyes through one book after another. How odd, she thought. A Time Lady losing track of time. The idea was laughable.

One frigid Saturday in January, she found herself wandering around the village alone. Many of her friends had stopped inside Honeydukes, but Lily didn't particularly care for sweets. Instead, she decided to take a walk through the brisk air. She soon realized the cold had become unbearable, though, and popped her head inside of the Three Broomsticks to warm up. After buying a butterbeer, as was customary, she took a seat at an unoccupied table in the corner. She could see the heavy snowfall through the frosted window.

The hustle and bustle of the people inside had a beauty all its own. She knew she wouldn't see anything remotely like it at Spinner's End. Old witches sitting in shadows offered phony potions that would supposedly make the user more beautiful. Drunken wizards would wave empty bottles at one another, mistaking them for wands. Students around Lily's age would chase each other, shouting spells and accidentally hitting passerbys. She laughed as she watched.

Among those students, she noticed, were those four ridiculous boys. Lily snorted, turning her head away, looking for other familiar faces. The damage had been done, however, and her table was soon occupied with four third-year Gryffindor boys. She rolled her eyes and focused on her butterbeer.

Sirius had taken the seat next to her. His shaggy dark hair flopped in front of his eyes as he clinked his mug against hers before taking a sip. "Cheers."

James followed suit, tapping his butterbeer against Lily's as well before drinking. As he finished, he wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. "So, Evans, how are you on this wonderful, beautiful day? Might as well be summer, eh?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Lily smirked. "Lovely, until you lot showed up. Tell me, do you wake up every morning and ask yourself how you're going to ruin my day, or does it just sort of happen?" It was obvious the question was directed at James.

"You flatter yourself to think that my day might revolve around you."

"Do I?" She raised an eyebrow

"Of course."

Lily turned to Sirius. "Do you think I flatter myself?"

Sirius laughed. "Well, I'm not so sure about that."

From the light movement of air around her ankles and the suddenly pained look on Sirius' face, Lily guessed that James had kicked his best friend under the table. She chuckled. "Clearly, I was mistaken. My apologies."

"Apology accepted. Carry on." James smiled, winked, and walked away, gesturing for his friends to join him. Remus begrudgingly stood up to follow, and Peter stuffed a Bath bun in his mouth as he scampered behind them. Sirius faked leaving and quickly sat down again.

"So, it seems like you've figured something out," he said, moving to the seat across the table.

"Well, to be fair, it _is_ sort of obvious."

"True." Sirius smirked. He could hardly disagree. James had been smitten with Lily since the beginning of the year, and his infatuation had only grown as the months went on. It was almost shameful. "You haven't even seen the worst of it."

"Could you let James know something from me?" Lily asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Of course."

"Let him know that I am not a plaything to be claimed. I am a person, like him, possibly _more so_ than him, and, the longer he lets his friends do the talking, the more my disdain for him will grow. Also, let him know that, if he asks, the answer will probably be no."

Sirius nodded, knowing that this message would _never_ reach James' ears. "Sure." He tapped his butterbeer against hers once more, finished off his mug, and ran out the door.

Outside, the other Marauders were having a snowball fight. "Oi!" James called as Sirius walked out the door. "Where've you been?"

"The loo, sorry. " Sirius dove down quickly in front of the building, packing the white fluff on the ground into a small sphere. He tossed it with full force, hitting James right in the middle of the face.

As James wiped the snow off of his reddened nose, he was quickly attacked with another snowball from Sirius, this one hitting him squarely in the chest. "That's not fair! You're guiding it, aren't you?"

"Nope." Sirius gave a wicked smile. "I've just got good aim."

As Lily had now finished her butterbeer, she, too, walked outside. How utterly juvenile, she thought. Snowballs. Hitting others in the face with frozen water seemed so basic, so childish. And so _fun_.

Walking past them, she quickly hurried around the side of the building. She made four rather large snowballs fairly quickly, patting them into firm globes. Her hearts raced inside her chest as she flicked her wand, making the snowballs hover. With another flick, they went zooming off. She peeked her head around the side of the Three Broomsticks just in time to see the four boys wiping snow from their eyes. Lily laughed as she bolted down the street, out of sight once more, to rejoin her other friends at Honeydukes.


	8. A Lonely Sort of Summer

**AN:** So I submitted a chapter earlier today, and I thought, "You know what this story hasn't had? ANGST." So, this happened. Not as sad as it could be, but still a _little_ bit sappy. I'm probably going to keep going about Lily for a few more chapters before I get to Harry's childhood, primarily because I rather enjoy writing about Lily, but also because I haven't fully decided yet how I'm going to attack that, if anyone's wondering.

* * *

Lily Evans managed to survive the rest of her third year at Hogwarts without strangling James, which she considered to be a major accomplishment. By the time summer came, she was quite ready for the break from both him and from her classes. The latter surprised her. Not once in her life had she thought that taking a class would be difficult, especially a class taught by humans.

Nevertheless, she welcomed the vacation with open arms, thankful to sleep in a room that didn't have four other girls in it. She loved the aroma of her home, the cellar in which her beloved TARDIS grew, the calming buzz of her parents' Gallifreyan equipment.

She did, however, miss having friends around. Petunia was hardly civil to her, even after three years, and she had barely spoken to Severus at all in the past few months. It was terribly lonesome.

Lily decided to put an end to this loneliness once and for all. On a bright Tuesday afternoon, she picked herself up and marched down to Severus' home. She gave a loud_ rap_ on the door with her knuckles and then crossed her arms as she waited for an answer.

Much to her dismay, Severus did not answer the door himself. Instead, Lily was greeted by his mother, a timid, dismal-looking woman whose hair, once jet-black, was now considerably grayed from stress. She looked Lily up and down before asking, "How may I help you?"

"I… I was wondering if I could speak to Severus," Lily stammered. For such an unimposing sort of woman, Mrs. Snape managed to strike quite a bit of fear in Lily's hearts.

Before the woman could answer, Severus ran up from behind her. "Thank you, Mum. I'll take this." He took her place at the door as she turned away, muttering things under her breath that Lily could only assume were offensive. "Well? What are you doing here?"

"D'you think we could maybe go down to the old park and talk for a while?"

Severus only had to look at Lily's face to agree. Her big green eyes were so sad, something he couldn't bear. He shut the door behind him as he followed her to the rusted old playground, covered in moss and nearly collapsed from neglect. She sat down on the grass, and he followed suit. He had trouble looking her in the eyes as she began to speak, opting to play with the weeds in front of him instead.

Lily got directly to the point. "Is there a reason you've been avoiding me?"

Severus could hear the pain in her voice. "I haven't been avoiding you."

"Don't lie to me Severus." She grabbed his chin, pulling his face up so she could look him straight in the eyes. "I'm not stupid, and I'm not going to beat around the bush. You were my best friend, and I barely even see you anymore, even though you only live down the street. This is outrageous. Either you need to tell me why you've been avoiding me, or you continue doing so and I play along this time." Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

He took a deep breath. "Do you really want to know the truth?"

"Of course I do. Don't insult me by suggesting I can't handle it."

Severus sighed. "They don't like you."

"What?"

"The other Slytherins. You're better than them at nearly everything, and you weren't even raised with magic. They say awful things about you, and I go along with it because I'm a coward. That's all I am, a coward, and I don't stand up to them because I _have_ to deal with them. You, on the other hand, I can slowly see less and less and it will probably be for the better, because you're wonderful and I'm not. I don't even deserve to be associated with you. It makes not talking to you so _easy_." The moment his speech was done, he regretted every single word.

Lily was speechless, and, at the rate her tears were flowing, Severus would not be surprised if they left permanent prints on her skin. It didn't matter if they did, of course, for she would still be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

She finally gathered the strength to speak. "Thank you. Thank you for the truth, and for saving me a whole lot of trouble searching for you in the halls the next four years."

Severus _knew_ that was going to happen. He knew he shouldn't have told the truth. He couldn't have even said something like, I'm not the same person, I don't like your friends, You smell funny. No, he simply had to give her exactly what she wanted, didn't he?

"You were wrong on one count, though," she continued. "You are a very brave person. You told me everything. But you've made your choice, and I really am going to miss you." She pushed his hair out of his face and gently kissed his forehead. Severus simultaneously felt the best and worst emotions he could possibly imagine. The former was quickly outdone, however, as she gave him a soft peck on the lips. "Good-bye, Severus."

Severus watched as she got up and walked away, her gorgeous orange hair flowing in the wind behind her. Oh, how he loved her. No, he thought, to reduce his emotions to just love would be an insult to his feelings for her. He could hardly describe how badly his heart broke as she left the park. He wanted to get up, to run after her, but that was simply impossible. She wouldn't want him. He lay in the grass of the park until darkness fell and he could bear the loneliness no longer. Fondling the hair that she had pushed out of his face, he swore never to shampoo again.

Lily, on the other hand, stayed in her cellar all night. Her TARDIS was still small enough that she could not take refuge within its confines, but she could still dream of the comfort it might one day provide. She did not want to see anyone; rather, she did not want to see anyone who might tell her to cheer up. At the very least, she could surround herself with plants and chemistry sets and books about fantastical worlds. She didn't want her reality right now.

She eventually fell asleep in a large armchair, a book about beautiful vacation planets lying in her lap. When she awoke, she brought herself to her senses. Severus was right: if he was going to avoid her because his friends didn't like her, then he was anything but worthy of her time.

A summer spent mostly alone, Lily decided, didn't seem like such a bad idea after all.


	9. The Best of Friends

**AN:** I'll be honest with you: this is a little weird, even for me. But I sort of like it. I felt like I hadn't been Time Lord-y enough in the last two chapters, so this sort of makes up for it. Also, just as a note, the bit at the end is more of an homage to The Doctor's Wife rather than a connection to it. I guarantee you, no characters in this story are going to be ending up on House any time soon.

* * *

As the summer drew to a close, Lily could no longer wait for school to start once more. She was tired of loneliness. The first of September was a welcome thought in her mind as she found she had nowhere else to go in the meantime.

This year, Lily decided to bring a few more comforts of home along with her. Her parents had warned her that, if she didn't spend more time with her TARDIS, it would hardly recognize her, making it potentially difficult to pilot in the future. So, in a small bag that was considerably larger on the inside, she stuffed her still-young TARDIS and left the Spinner's End once again, Hogwarts in mind.

When she got there, she found it was difficult to keep the TARDIS hidden. While her bag had enough Gallifreyan technology to keep her young time machine growing at a proper rate, she had trouble finding the time to care for it. She would need to carefully plan when exactly she could be around it so that no one else would see it. On occasion, she would pack it with her as she went to the Gryffindor common room to study, feigning trouble with an Arithmancy equation or an Ancient Runes translation until the room had cleared and she could spend some time alone with her beloved plant.

Lily soon tired of this, though, fearing that she would not even be able to last until Christmas. She really needed a room for it, a place where she could tend to the TARDIS and give it enough space to truly grow.

A blessing of sorts came to her one Sunday morning in the form of Peter Pettigrew. This was certainly a surprise, for, while she found Peter to be inoffensive, he also struck her as unbelievably dull.

As Lily sat in the corner of the Gryffindor common room that morning, fretting over whether the Runic word aphlotix would better translate to pansy or azalea, she was startled by Peter poking his nose (which, Lily thought to herself, was not so much a nose as a snout, pulling his meek face forward with it) over the back of her seat.

"Psst! Lily!" he whispered.

"What?" She, too, was whispering; although hers was out of mockery rather than fear that someone was listening.

"We've found something." His normally beady eyes were now wide with earnestness.

Lily followed him through the castle, up several flights of stairs, down dark corridors. He continued talking. "It's weird," he said, wheezing a bit from the long walk. "Me and James and Sirius and Remus found every other part of this castle within the first two months, but we didn't even have any idea that this existed until today. We'd been down this corridor loads of times, but we had never seen this. Not even once."

They finally stopped in front of a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and some dancing trolls. "You've _never_ seen this before?" Lily was not amused. "This is a bit out of my way, but even _I've_ seen this tapestry before."

"No, no, no!" Peter was in a slight state of despair. "_Across_ from the tapestry." He pointed at a blank wall.

"Well, it just looks like the rest of the stonework to me."

"No, just… just watch."

Peter paced down the hall and back again, passing by her on his way back, three times. As he walked, he looked as though he was speaking words, although no sound was coming from his mouth. His eyes were shut tight, and he was obviously concentrating. As he passed her the third time, the wall slowly morphed into a doorway.

Lily stood back for a moment, taking in the magic. She had spent three years with this, and it _still_ never failed to amaze her. She finally reached for the handle of the door, pulling it slowly open.

Inside, the room was magnificent. To call it enormous would be an understatement. How it could possibly have been sitting here for so long, and no one had noticed it yet, was simply unbelievable.

She quickly found the other three boys standing to the side. Whereas Sirius and Remus beamed away at her, James' eyes wandered off to a corner of the room before finally settling on the floor.

"So, what exactly is this room called?" Lily asked, going over to the walls and feeling them. She could practically sense the energy pouring out of them, a sort of life surrounding her in the masonry.

"We haven't the foggiest." Remus shrugged. "It just sort of… appears. You have to walk by it three times, thinking about what it is you want to see, and then it opens up. We've been in and out of it all morning."

"An excellent way to waste time, I'm sure." She felt oddly at home in this place. "So why was I invited?"

"Well, why not?" Sirius laughed. "We trust you enough. You're practically one of us."

"Which might explain why I was here when you found it." She smirked. Inside, she knew she would need to remember this room.

"We couldn't exactly go about waking you up, could we?" James finally looked at her. "The stairs don't trust us enough to go and see you or the other girls." It was true. If they so much as tried to visit the girls' dormitories, the stairs would slip out from underneath them, making them impossible to climb. "Besides, it's not like we found it on purpose."

"I'm sure you didn't."

As she leaned against the walls of the room, she began to truly connect with the room. And, as she connected with the room, she realized something very important: the room was _speaking_ to her. She knew it wasn't English; it couldn't be. The boys certainly didn't seem to hear it or, at the very least, understand it enough to recognize it as language. But, to Lily, it sounded very much like English. She tried not to show to the others that she was actually listening to a room. "I like that one," the room said. "The one with the glasses. He's rather funny."

Lily stifled a laugh. "So, how _did_ you find it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" said the room. "I _wanted_ them to."

"Well, we were just sort of for a bit of a stroll," started James.

"And Sirius got a bit ahead of us up around here," continued Peter.

"And then he tossed a _dungbomb_ at me," added Remus, grimacing.

"And then _he_ got all worked up, pacing back and forth, thinking of how to get rid of it before it went off," said Sirius, laughing at his friend's earlier frenzy. "So then this old thing showed up."

"Who is he calling _old_?" the room complained.

Lily was baffled by the entire scenario unfolding around her. Not only had these four boys stumbled upon a hidden room, but the room was also sentient. This was beyond what even Lily's comprehension.

As their conversation drew out, the boys parted, one by one, until Lily was left alone in the room. She sat down against the wall, sighing. "So, you're a bit different, too, I see."

The room laughed. Could rooms do that? "If you understand me so well, I can see that _you're_ a little bit different."

"Yes, I suppose so." Lily looked around at the enormous hall. "So, what _are_ you exactly? An android? A type of plant? What?"

"I am a sort of coral from the planet Alzarius, if you must know."

Lily frowned. "I've never heard of that planet. My parents are _from _another planet. Those are all I learned about for the first eleven years of my life. Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Well, which planet are your parents from?"

"Gallifrey."

"Ah. A Time Lady." The room chuckled. "To make a rather long story short, Alzarius is in a parallel universe known to the Time Lords as E-Space, in precisely the same coordinates as Gallifrey."

"Really?" This normally would have seemed far-fetched to Lily, but, seeing as she was talking to a room in a castle filled with people waving sticks at one another, she could hardly complain. "Is Alzarius much like Gallifrey?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. Alzarius did not have the advantage of being drenched in the time vortex, so the people there don't regenerate, although they are exceptionally fast healers, at least compared to humans. My kind is rather like those… those… oh, what are they called again? The coral that resembles a machine."

"The TARDISes?"

"Yes, those. Like our people, though, we were not exposed to the vortex, and so we have no command of time. I am, though, rather gifted in travelling through space. I don't even need a pilot." The room chuckled. "Unfortunately, on a journey some thousands of years ago, I fell through a crack, so to speak, and here I am!"

"How is that you speak? TARDISes don't unless they have a voice interface."

"We've a great many differences with the TARDIS race, as far as I can understand. Although we can both communicate telepathically, my kind managed to develop the ability to produce our own sounds and, later, language. The better question might be, how do _you_ speak to _me_? You've mastered the language of my kind quite well, I must say."

"Well," Lily said, "I've sort of got a TARDIS growing in my dormitory."

"Ah. That would explain it. The translation circuits must be growing well."

"Actually, I was wondering…" Lily was worried that the request she was about to make might be too much for her new friend. "Do you think I could keep the TARDIS hidden in here? It's in a bag right now, but I feel like it might be able to use some space."

"Of course!" The room sounded delighted to have something even remotely like her within her walls. "Shall I prepare a special room for it that only _you_ can access?"

"Oh, that would be lovely! Can you do that?"

"Don't insult me. Of course I can." Lily imagined that, if the room had a mouth, it would be smiling right now.

"Thank you." Lily grinned, awkwardly patting the floor. "What are you called, exactly?"

"Similarly to how the TARDIS is short for 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space,' my race is known as IDRIS, 'Inter-Dimensional Relativity In Space.'"

"IDRIS." Lily liked it. "Pleased to meet you, IDRIS. I'm Lily."

"Lily, my dear, I feel this will be the beginning of a beautiful new friendship."


	10. The IDRIS and the Tiger Lily

**AN:** I just had to write more about the IDRIS and answer all the questions that _I_ had that I just couldn't fit into the last chapter. So, this is a little bit short, but it answers what I want it to answer, and hopefully you'll enjoy it!

* * *

Lily very much enjoyed visiting the IDRIS as the days, weeks, months passed. With it, she could be alone and not alone all at the same time. The IDRIS was a confidante to whom Lily could whisper secrets and know that no one else would ever hear them. Of course, she had a great many questions for the room, the beautiful spaceship which had travelled so very far from home.

"Out of curiosity, are you a boy IDRIS or a girl IDRIS?"

"Neither. IDRISes don't have gender. We simply _are_."

"Ah. And how do you change so easily?"

"The same way a TARDIS does. I am old, I know how to hide the control panels so that I might be mistaken for an average room, but I _do_ have some machinery to me, including a chameleon circuit, or course."

"How old _are_ you? How long have you been here?"

"Oh, I've lost track of my age. I'm just _old_. I wasn't meant to count years. I've been around here for a few centuries now. The castle was here already. I just sort of snuck in when nobody was looking, and I've been here ever since."

Since it had been here so long, the IDRIS had its share of stories to tell.

"I cannot tell you how many times I've been turned into a bathroom. I've had to be a bedroom on several occasions as well, and a supply closet, and a disposal bin, and so many other things. I've even gotten to the point where I can take some supply of food, although that can get tricky, so I save it only for those who _truly_ need it. I've had dungbombs thrown in me. I've had vomit spewed across me. I've an entire archived room that is filled from front to back and from bottom to top with things people have needed to hide. I think –I _think_ –it may even have that lost Diadem or whatever it is those Ravenclaw children talk about so much."

The IDRIS proved to be a very useful friend, as well, making sure the TARDIS was well taken care of. It kept a secret compartment that Lily alone could access, as it had taken a particular liking to her. She need only walk up to the wall across from the tapestry and whisper, and the room would show itself to her.

"Why is it, exactly, that you open up immediately for me, but you make others walk past three times before letting them in?"

"Because it's _funny_… and, of course, completely harmless." This statement made Lily laugh.

The TARDIS was growing quite beautifully inside the IDRIS. It had a certain mothering nature to it, surprisingly, and took great care to protect the TARDIS from harm in its childhood stages. Indeed, the IDRIS was able to connect telepathically with the TARDIS, making their nurturing transaction turn into a full-blown friendship.

"I told it not to call me mama, if that's quite alright," the IDRIS told Lily.

"That's fine. Out of curiosity, what does it call me?"

"Firehead."

Lily giggled. "I'm glad to see that it's creative. Could you tell it to call me by my name?"

"Of course." The IDRIS stopped making noises temporarily as it communicated with the TARDIS. It finally answered, "It is willing to settle on the name Tiger Lily."

"I like that." Lily smiled.

She could see that, as the TARDIS grew, it began to test its abilities. It was clear that the chameleon circuit was working properly, because the TARDIS would readily adjust itself to whatever Lily told it to. At most times, she decided it would be best to keep it looking rather like a desk, in case the IDRIS made a mistake and allowed the wrong person to go see it. Still, Lily had gotten her beloved plant to imitate a chamber pot, a fish tank, and a rather elaborate statue. It was still small, and so she could not enter to see how it was functioning on the inside.

"Your TARDIS is growing just fine, don't you worry," the IDRIS reassured her. "It's healthy. You can often tell from the outer appearance."

"I'm sure, much in the same way that you can tell its size." Lily smirked.

"Smarty pants."

How odd, Lily thought, how she could joke with the IDRIS in a way she could joke with no one else. Her parents understood the ways of being Time Lords, but understood almost nothing about magic, and her friends at Hogwarts understood magic, but knew nothing whatsoever about Time Lords. How odd that the IDRIS was neither magical nor Gallifreyan, and yet it understood her so well. If she believed in pure luck, Lily would deem meeting the IDRIS as the luckiest event in the universe, but Lily also knew better than to ignore coincidences.

"Why are you here? I understand about the hole between universes, but why _here_? Why Hogwarts?"

"Well, Tiger Lily," the IDRIS explained, "I was on Gallifrey with the Time Lords and TARDISes for so very long, but they certainly didn't need me. Most of the universe could use something like me, I'm sure, but, one look inside, and they simply wouldn't believe. I would be rendered useless. But you –the wizards, I mean –you lot _believe_. You know that some things may seem strange, but the world is strange and it's alright. Most cultures, most planets don't want to think that." It sighed. "The whole concept is sad. So much to understand, so much to become familiar with, and they want nothing of it."

Lily knew exactly what the IDRIS was talking about. She thought of her sister, who even _knew_ how mad the universe was, and who _still_ berated and shunned her for being a witch because it was simply unnatural. The thought was enough to make Lily cry. "I'm glad I've got you, IDRIS."

"Me, too, Tiger Lily. Me, too."


	11. Of Tomes and ThickHeadedness

**AN:** Ohmygosh. I'm sorry this took so long. I seriously had about two months there where I could have written about _anything_ other than Lily. Serious writer's block, but only for this story. I was just sort of stuck. But, now this is here, so, enjoy. Not the most exciting/Time Lord-y chapter ever, but it's _something_. Again, I'm super sorry for the wait.

* * *

The rest of Lily's fourth year simply flew past, as the years before had a tendency to do. It was unsurprising, of course. In lieu of the childhood friend she had lost, she had gained the wonderful IDRIS. Not that she could take the IDRIS home with her, but it was nice knowing it would be there when she got back. As spring blossomed into summer, summer drifted into autumn, and Lily was back in the castle she adored so much, her quickly-growing TARDIS and tawny owl Omega in tow, ready for all that Hogwarts had to toss her way. Ready for her OWLS, ready to become a prefect, ready for the relief from Spinner's End.

Lily had not, however, readied herself for a certain mister James Potter. She hadn't expected much from him, as his general debauchery had bothered her less over the past year, and she had all but forgotten the incident with Remus wherein she'd learned James' true feelings. Perhaps more surprising was the fact that, as much as she hated to admit it, she found him fairly attractive. This was merely physical, of course, as Time Ladies had hormones and an instinct for preservation of species just like any other species, but the matter remained that he had a nice sort of look to him. He was an arse, to be sure, but he was a very cute arse.

Suffice it to be said that he didn't need to know that.

One particularly sunny October morning, she found herself down by the lake. Not quite as peaceful as she imagined Gallifrey would be, she admitted, but it was the best she could do for the time being. The air was just beginning to turn chilly, the wind rustled the browning leaves, and birds chirped incessantly from the tops of trees. For once, Lily thought, it was a pity that the TARDIS translation circuits were working well, as the birds' primitive form of communication was rather dull.

The book in her hands was, for once, not one of magic, but instead an old Gallifreyan tome she had swiped from her mother before she left this year. It was absolutely fascinating in every sense of the word, due in part, no doubt, to the fact that she knew no one else in the castle would be able to read it. Even if the TARDIS translation circuits extended to the other students, it wouldn't translate Gallifreyan, as she was a native speaker of the language.

She had just begun to relax in the still-green grass when James took the open seat next to her. Damn. _His_ incessant chattering could be worse than that of the birds.

"Soooo…" he sighed as he stretched out on the grass next to her. Was that supposed to be an attractive move? Lily may have been growing at about the same rate as an average human teenager, but she hardly thought the same way. By Time Lord standards, perhaps she was filled with raging hormones, but, by human standards, she was about as bothered as a dead housefly. "Evans, what might bring you here on this lovely morning?"

Lily offered a sarcastic smile in return. "Well, I woke up today, and I thought to myself, 'I'd really love to be hit on today by an incompetent arsehole,' so here I am. Congratulations, James, you've successfully made my dreams come true." She resumed reading her book, but she could feel him shift closer to her.

"Hit on? Well, Lil, I'm offended. I would never even _dream_ of that." As she looked up and raised an eyebrow at him, he flashed her a bright white smile. When her face returned to her book, he leaned over. At the very least, Lily thought to herself, he smelled nice. "How, exactly, can you read that? It's all just symbols. There aren't even any _words_."

"Funny," she replied, not looking up at him. "I'm fairly certain words _are_ symbols. Besides which, I'm amazed you could read anything, with that pea in the middle of your head that you keep trying to pass off as a brain." When she noticed that he hadn't moved, she let out a sigh of feigned despair. "Would you _please_ be ever so kind as to move your head out of the vicinity? I realize you're trying your absolute hardest to ruin my day, but I was rather trying to enjoy this book."

"Ruin your day? Tsk, tsk," he said as he shook his head. When Lily looked up again, a glare resting quite comfortably on her face, she could see that his mouth had grown into an enormous smile. "All these false accusations on your part really aren't doing you any favors, Lily. I realize you're trying your best to find cause to hate me, but I was rather trying to enjoy the lakeside." He laughed at what he believed was cleverness on his part. Pity that he genuinely thought he was funny.

"Haven't you got first-years to torment?" She arched an eyebrow at the shaggy-haired excuse for a boy sitting next to her.

"Haven't you got books to read? I like to think you take time out of your plans to make snarky comments for my benefit." James smirked as Lily rolled her eyes and resumed her book. The smirk was quickly wiped off of his face, however, when Lily gave him a good smack to the back of the head, never once taking her eyes off of the foreign tome. "Oi! Is that any way to treat a man who was about to ask you out?"

Lily snapped her head up at this. Despite her outward calm, her brain was doing flips. For once, was he going to be the one to bring this up, instead of one of his friends? That was certainly an improvement from two years before. "I thought you said you wouldn't even _dream_ of hitting on me."

"Oh, I wouldn't." His smirk grew again. "But _this_ doesn't qualify as hitting on you, does it? No, Lil, this is a genuine date proposal. Next weekend's a Hogsmeade weekend. I suggest Madame Puddifoot's." He looked very pleased with himself.

"Nice try," Lily said, laughing as his face fell a little bit. "I recommend brushing up your act a bit before trying again on anyone else. Not me, of course, because I'll tell you right now that I wouldn't go. But, generally, girls prefer not to be insulted on a regular basis by boys they go out with." She snapped her book shut with a satisfying _clonk_ as she prepared to leave.

James grabbed her arm as she stood up to leave. "So you'll sit and talk to the rest of my friends, but you won't even give me the benefit of the doubt." He wouldn't be deterred for long, Lily knew, but this was quicker than she'd expected. "So, what's their secret, eh? What've they got that I don't?"

Lily laughed as she wrenched her arm from him, having no trouble preserving her resolve. "Well, for starters, unlike you, they've at least got _some_ likeable qualities, like brains, bravery, or just knowing when to shut up." And, with that, Lily walked away, smugly knowing the disappointment she'd just left James in behind her.


End file.
